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Thursday, August 29, 2013

3:34 PM

Shared Use Mobility is Coming Whether We're Ready or Not!


Like me you've probably noticed the HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of DOLLARS being invested in  services like Car2Go, DriveNow (one way), Über, Lyft & Sidecar (taxi) and CiteeCar (plain old round trip carsharing). The sharing economy is a hot topic, not only on the blogosphere, but with entrepreneurs, VC firms and in the bureaus of a number of major cities around the world.   Something is definitely happening and it's going to transform mobility in urban areas, soon!

These new mobility services — whether classic carsharing, point to point/flexible carsharing or shared seats in vehicles — are transforming mobility cities.  Consumers are voting with the pocketbooks and investors seem to be irrationally exuberant that shared transportation may be the "internet" investment golden calf of the new century.

But cities are also feeling a pinch, as they struggle to come to terms with access to the public right of way for carsharing parking, as well as attempting to figure out a regulatory strategy for services that challenge the traditional domain of taxis.

These are just a sample of issues that will be discussed at the upcoming Shared Use Mobility Summit meeting, being held in San Francisco, October 10-11, 2013.

“These shared uses can be integrated and linked with public transit,” said Susan Shaheen, PhD, co-director of the UC Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Research Center and organizer of the conference.

“Shared mobility is already familiar through carsharing companies like City CarShare and Zipcar or through bike sharing kiosks. Dynamic-ridesharing systems, like Carma, are part of this, as are other types of sharing networks such as Sidecar and Lyft. It’s evolving into a new industry.”

The overall goals, said Dr. Shaheen, include helping to provide more mobility choices, reducing traffic congestion, filling empty seats, mitigating various forms of pollution, helping people control transportation costs, reducing fossil fuel consumption, reducing pressures on parking spaces, and improving efficiency. Employment opportunities are created through these services as well. It also provides transportation choices for those who cannot afford to buy and maintain a vehicle.

The list of confirmed speakers include:

  • Sunil Paul, CEO Sidecar
  • Gabe Klein, Chicago Dept. of Transportation
  • Sean O'Sullivan, CEO of Carma
  • Timothy Papandreou, Deputy Director San Francisco MTA
  • Lisa Gansky, Mesh Labs, author and "markitect", 
  • Jennifer Dill, Transportation Oregon Research and Education Consortium, Portland State University (OTREC), 
  • Natalie Foster, Director of Peers (supporting sharing economy), 
  • Sharon Feigon, Alternative Transportation for Chicagoland Inc. (formerly I-Go Carsharing CEO), 
  • Guy Fraker, CEO of get2kno Inc, and futurist, author and insurance industry specialist, 
  • Alan Greenburg, Senior Policy Analyst, Federal Highway Administration

(And look for me somewhere on the program, as well.)

Below is a tentative listing of sessions.  The updated current program and speakers are here.

Day 1

  • The Nuts & Bolts: Public Bikesharing, Carsharing, Personal Vehicle Sharing, Ridesharing, Innovations for Providing & Sharing Rides, and Shuttle Service
  • Some Success Stories 
  • The Sharing Economy: Scaling the Shared-Use Mobility Marketplace
  • Governance 2.0 (“Micro” Level): Shared-Use Policy Approaches for City and County
  • The Impacts of Shared-Use Mobility Services
  • Spotlight Evening Panel: The Future of Mobility and Transportation Policy and Planning

Day 2

  • Fostering Multi-Modal Integration and Public Transit Connections
  • Shared-Use Mobility Panels: Industry Updates and Policy Considerations 
  • Mobility Sector Breakouts: Encouraging Policy and Multi-Modal Collaboration
  • Afternoon Pick-Your-Segment:
  •  a)   Insuring Shared-Use Mobility Services
  •  b)   Bikesharing:  Funding 2.0
  •  c)    Ridesharing Institute Breakout Discussion
  • Final Summary: The Future of Shared-Use Mobility

Registration for the Shared Use Mobility Summit is $350 for the two day session, including lunch both days. Here is registration and conference hotel information.

Shared-Use Mobility Summit sponsors include U.S. Federal Highway Administration, State Farm, Toyota, Enterprise Car Share, Capitol Corridor, Cubic, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Ridesharing Institute, Transportation Research Board, the California Department of Transportation, American Public Transportation Association, UC Berkeley Transportation Sustainability Center, SMART, get2kno, Lyft, Carsharing Association, Car2go, Zipcar, DriveNow, bikeshare.com, ITS America, ITS California, meshlabs, and others. The conference has received generous support from a number of sponsors, including numerous sharing economy companies and the Rockerfeller Foundation.

Hope to see you there.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

5:00 PM

Report on the Relationship Free Floating Carsharing and Public Transport in Berlin

A German research organization is claiming that free-floating carsharing (like car2go and DriveNow) compliment public transportation services not cannabalize them.  

The possibility of such competition has expressed by a number of mobility analysts, including during the start up of the Autolib' program in Paris, as well as in cities if public subsidy might be involved free-floating programs.

The first report comes via an article in the German newspaper Die Zeit by Andreas Knie, the CEO of InnoZ (German Innovation Center for Mobility Social Change in Berlin.

The results are based on an analysis of trips Inno-Z did in Berlin - the world capital of carsharing, with more than 3,000 shared vehicles an estimated 200,000 members of 9 companies, including 3 free floating services (1 of which is all-electric vehicles)

Knie cites the following to make the case that free floating compliments public transport:
  • the high frequency of use can be found around major public transport hubs
  • recent surveys show many free-floating users combine trips with public transport
  • new members are attracted to carsharing by free floating services that hadn't joined the traditional model
In the article Knie reminds readers that free floating carsharing isn't cheap, and sometimes can be more expensive than traditional round trip carsharing.   He gives the example of the following free floating trip:
A ten minutes drive, priced from 28 to 34 Euro cents per hour,  might cost as much as 14,90€. By comparison, classical car-sharing is calculated to cost less than 8€ for an hour including the distance traveled in kilometers.
Here's the link to the original Die Zeit article in German and Google English.  Thanks for Vjecko at CarsharingBlog for the information.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

12:05 PM

New One-Way Carsharing Services Being Offered by Traditional Carshare Companies


For the past few years, it appeared that one-way/on-demand carsharing was the province of "the big guys" - OEMs with a vision for future mobility and deep pockets to realize that vision - notably Daimer with car2go and BMW with DriveNow.

However, in the past year several operators of traditional round trip carsharing services have started their own one-way services, suggesting they have options in the face of possible competition from Daimler and BMW services.

Auto Mobile

In North America, CommunAuto has started a one-way/on-demand demonstration project, Auto Mobile, with 30+ Nissan Leaf EVs in on-demand service the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough of Montreal.  

The pilot service is being evaluated by the Montreal Polytechnique in order to identify the impacts of the a service on users' mobility behavior.

In Germany two traditional carshare companies, both affiliated with Stadtmobil, are operating one-way services, each also with about 30 vehicles each.  

Stadtflitzer

In Hannover, Stadtmobil, facing competition from VW-financed Quicar (which is a round trip carshare service, in spite of some misinformation in the blogosphere), decided to respond by setting up a one-way service they call Stadtflitzer to supplement their existing round-trip service. 

In a unique approach to managing parking and availability, Stadtflizer has a 3 zones - free parking in 3 areas near the core (red lines), a 6€ one-time charge for ending a trip within the green area and 12€ to park within the blue area.


Vehicles are located via the regular Stadtmobile website or App.

JoeCar

In Mannheim, Stadtmobil Rhein-Neckar  operates 35 cars in one-way service under a separate brand name - JoeCar.  All vehicles are the new Opel "Adam" vehicle.  

Similar to Stadtflitzer, pricing is in the European tradition of having separate time and distance charges - 0.07 € per minute + 0.23 € per kilometer.  The per minute rate ratchets up to 1.70 € per hour + km.  Note that the 7 Euro cents per minute charge is far lower than the 0.19 € per minute park and hold option charged by car2go and DriveNow in some cities.  So, here's how a typical one-way trip might compare:
  • 20 min. + 10 km = 3.70 € for JoeCar; 5,80 € for car2go (Berlin rates)
It's important to note that since all of these services have a limited fleet size, the operators have restricted the operating area, as well.  Whether these services will grow into large-scale operations, remains to be seen.

I will report on the evaluation of the CommunAuto Auto Mobile program when it is released this fall.